February 2009

The Charter School was created in 2009, you can read here for that information. Today the Charter School has a max occupancy of 510. Our local resident population has fluctuated over the past 20 years from just below 600-700 students. Select here for more about enrollment numbers and the current application for population increase.

December / January 2010

When talk of an expansion of the Charter School was rumored to be at hand with the Corbett School Board, an online petition was posted for those in the community who wanted to let our school board know that we felt we should be working to keep our schools small and our roads safe.

This online petition and many hand signed signatures were presented to the Corbett School Board at the January 2011 School Board meeting for the public record. The official board minutes read: “2.4 Victoria Purvine, parent/patron, spoke about community input and information regarding petition handouts for the Board.”

There is no mention that the petition was relevant to discussions at hand or even what it was for. It also was never made as part of the minutes for download. The opinions and remarks from the community on this petition were also never included in the “survey results” that Randy Trani used when making his assessment, that the community supported the Charter expansion etc.

March 2011

Official board meeting minutes state that there were two comprehensive executive sessions on expanding the Charter.

Superintendent Trani met with board members individually prior to the board meeting. This was mentioned, in the official meeting minutes, by Director Mickalson where he states that he still had questions about his meeting with Mr. Trani the day before on this topic.

This vote was not mentioned at the Q&A held by the Superintendent the same night, held immediately prior to the board meeting. Many people at the Q&A went home. They had no idea our board was voting on anything like this that night.

This vote was directly tied to and meant to mend the $725,000 shortfall that was discovered in the budget soon after Superintendent Trani took over the chair from past Superintenent Bob Dunton. ( This shortfall was the reason for the “emergency meeting” that was called of the school board the previous September 2, 2010. That meeting was held at 4:00 PM, on the last day to file to place a levy on the ballot, and the paperwork was filed with the County at 4:35 PM. See the official documentation and more info here.

Director Childs ( replaced by Director Purvine at the last election ) mentions, on the same official record, that the Community Forum held in January 2011 showed the community support for the Charter expanding, as another reason to vote yes. ( However there was no mention at all about the petition to keep CSD small, submitted at the school board meeting during that same month. Nor was that information calculated into the Superintendents handouts at that time showing the results from what the community had to say.)

Over 50% of students now do not live in Corbett. We lost our grade school library to make classroom space for the Charter, in fact. The only open seats are currently “owned” by the Charter School. So the new law that took effect this month that says that we can now accept unlimited students without a Charter School at all, is null and void in our particular case…. until we create more classrooms in the Springdale School OR perhaps pass a bond to create new buildings and get the county to approve our application for population increase.

May 2011

Two new school board members elected and two were removed from office. [ Link ]

October 2011

Dr. Trani stated that he’d like to have between 1,100 to 1,400 students in the district and that will involve adding buildings or classrooms to accomplish that goal. This is a subject that has been the focus regarding the Springdale School and the special “sub committee” because to meet the loan cost Dr. Trani figures it will involve bringing in another 226 +/- students from out of the district.

The board voted, 5-2, to take out the loan. ( The actual numbers were 268 students/staff for Springdale. ) If the Legislation changes the rules regarding Charters, or caps the percentage of students you may bring in from out of district, the cost will fall to the General fund to make the loan payment.

Thank you for your interest

6 Comments

I have followed this topic and have heard some things which are concerning to me. One of those things relates to the establishment of the charter. Was there a community meeting scheduled prior to the approval of the proposal for the Charter School? An answer with evidence would be greatly appreciated.
Honestly,
Corbettonian

From what I understand there were meetings prior to the vote by the board, however, there were no letters/invitations sent to the parents or community as a whole about the plan to start a Charter.

Many attending those meetings were those directly affected if we did NOT open the Charter. (Parents of students the district had been bringing in for years up to that point from out of the area to make up for the enrollment numbers in Corbett dropping.)

The school board at that time also did not go through the County/legal means to establish the Charter.

I see the first reference was from May 2009 and I thought the charter was board approved Febuary 2009. If this is correct are these posts talking about the meetings before the charter was established? Did the board ever present the proposal to the community? Thanks for your time and answers!

As far as I can find, there was nothing formal sent from CSD prior to the Charter being approved/established etc. At that time there were mailed newsletters – I do not recall any mention.
Here is what I can tell you:

Jan 26th, 2009
This is date on the adoption for the Bylaws of the CCSA ( Corbett Charter School Association.)

Full paragrapgh: “Randy Trani, principal of Corbett’s elementary, middle and high schools, said he and Dunton have been discussing a charter school for five years. The Corbett board approved the charter school at its Feb. 18 meeting, he added, noting the new institution will use the principles of ‘imaginative education,’ detailed at http://www.ierg.net.”

February 24, 2009
As of Feb. 24, parents of 215 students had signed up for the lottery, Dunton said. ( from same article )
” Many of the parents attending the meeting were from outside the Corbett district, but hope their children can be picked in a March 6 lottery to attend the new school. ”

May 20, 2009 Corbett School Board Meeting:
The vote of the Board was 5 – 0 in favor of RESOLUTION NO. 104.5-09 – RESOLVED that the Board approved the Corbett Charter School Agreement. ( According to the approved minutes. )

Charlie O’Neil was the Charter School Board Chairman ( And a district board member at that time, who voted on the adoption at that meeting. ) Bob Buttke noted the Hungerford Law Firm ( who also represented Dunton at that time ) reviewed and OSBA is the writer of the charter agreement. ….Mark Hyzer was concerned about the short time to look at this agreement, and had some questions.

7/1/09 – 6/30/12 ( Original term of contract ) However after the levy failed and we expanded the Charter ( added to the agenda the day before for the board to vote on it ) The contract was extended until 2014 ( making it a 5 year contract vs. the standar 3 ).

Thank you for this information. It seems as though the more I try to verify things I hear the more concerns are raised. It almost makes me want to stop seeking the truth, but then that would be failing the children and that is something I refuse to do. Your time is greatly appreciated!
Honestly,
Corbettonian

Corbettonian – I know how you feel – Good Luck. I am also curious about why the board voted on such a huge change without including the community along the way. It has always been a root issue here. Not WHAT but HOW we have done the Charter. If RT and BD had been bringing in so many kids to replace our own and discussing the Charter for about the same amt of time ( 5 years ) it seems they had the chance to get input… But as is the case in so many examples.. they don’t want community input.

We did NOT announce the Charter when other districts had all agreed to share if they planned to bring one on line so that schools could budget/forecast ( we kept it under wraps ) Maybe because we didn’t want community input… Then we did make our district neighbors angry when we sprung it on them in Feb 09.

BD has tried to make it sound like he was treated unfairly due to jealousy. In truth, BD was trying to open TWO OTHER CHARTERS ( mentioned in the above article ) in Reynolds and GBSD and then later in Cascade Locks with Corbett backing the deal. ( All fell through because, except our board, no one else thinks his Charter model meets state standards. See here what the state said about the appeal : http://corbettpost.com/a-charter-school-in-cascade-locks/ )

Notice: It seems you have Javascript disabled in your Browser. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: a3186639d88c69bb687b8ea471a3da2a

If We Build it They Will Come

The County Application to increase the district population in 2013 was controlled by Superintendent Randy Trani. This was done without the school board's involvement or community input.
CSD can now enroll 1,382 students and 80 staff (for the main campus only) and CAPS in Springdale is allowed 268 students and staff.

This now brings the District's allowed total to 1,730 students and staff. Over 1,000 more than local resident students today.